Very Interesting Paper Information (Very)

My paper topic is about something that interests me, namely search engines. One of the largest to have appeared recently is Bing.com owned by Microsoft. For a catchy way to draw the reader in here is my beginning: “Microsoft thought they finally got it right with a catchy name and a catchy sound” My thesis is about how Microsoft has it wrong, a search engine is about more than earning market share (unless it is really about earning money, in which case MS is acting appropriately because that is what market share can grant a company). It is easy to earn market share when a search engine pays people to use it. As far as counter arguments I think that Google also goes out of their way to gain market share. They offer cheap storage, free programs to streamline productivity. They have driven Microsoft to innovate with Bing and competition is a good thing. First point: Marketing isn’t everything, look at Vista. Google, like Microsoft, does a fair amont of lobbying but Google does not do so much marketing. I think that maybe MS has finally figured out it is not perception it is reality. Google is easy to use, all their services have much more of a usability perspective. I feel like MS has more of the weight of an IBM whereas Google feels more agile like Linux from our lectures. I trust what I use which is why many people use gmail versus hotmail. Second point: It is a fine line between helping people and earning money versus earning money and then helping people. Microsoft has made a ton of money by monetizing the code they sell. Google offers repositories of free code. Third point: Almost related to the second, a more technical analysis of buying market share, when the systems are abused. MS system is abusing fair testing of market share by offering cash back just to be able to claim they have 10% market share. Then people suffer because merchant websites are quickly adapting their websites to actually charge more to people who think they are saving money. Everybody wins but the target: the user, with the way MS is going about their business.

Sources:

http://www.darkreading.com/security/app-security/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=221601252&cid=ref-true

http://techdirt.com/articles/20091114/1839216938.shtml

http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20081109/0144342776.shtml

http://mediamemo.allthingsd.com/20090714/microsofts-bing-problem-google-is-just-fine/

http://features.csmonitor.com/innovation/2009/06/26/the-biggest-problem-facing-bing-loyalty-to-google/